Chapter 334: Thirty Reinforcements (4)
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 334: Thirty Reinforcements (4)
Thud.
Roman Dmitry threw Kalot to the ground.
As Kalot struggled to find his balance—having lost both of his arms—Roman Dmitry looked at the crowd that had gathered around them.
"This bastard is the only Orc commander to survive. He cowardly abandoned his men and fled, then tried to strike a deal for his own life by offering Luna's prisoners as hostages. War always demands a price. I intend to execute this bastard, but I will hand the hilt of the sword to you."
The people were taken aback.
It was an unexpected turn of events.
"Who will take up this hilt?"
Roman raised a sword.
It was one of the many scattered across the ground, caked with blood and flesh of unknown origin.
The people exchanged hesitant glances.
No one dared to step forward.
The people of Arcadia had lived in peace; they were not accustomed to such extreme vengeance. Usually, when someone committed a crime, they were punished through due process. Isabelle had presided over trials, and in accordance with divine judgment, she imposed forced labor rather than death. Perhaps that was why, even though they had been attacking the Orcs with faces flushed with madness just moments prior, they couldn't bring themselves to accept the sword Roman Dmitry offered now that the stage was set.
"Urgh, urgh..."
Kalot crawled across the ground.
At the sight of the Orc desperately trying to survive with a terror-stricken face, someone stepped forward from the crowd.
"I will do it."
It was Smith.
The man who had lost his friend to Kalot.
He accepted the sword.
Gripping the cold, eerie hilt tightly, Smith drove the blade into Kalot's leg without a second of hesitation.
Thwack!
"Aaargh!"
A scream erupted.
Kalot spun around in a panic, his body trembling violently. He looked up at Smith, his face pale with terror. Smith's expression was contorted by a complex mix of emotions. Even as tears streamed down his face from the rush of accumulated sorrow, his features twisted like a demon's, unable to hide his blinding rage.
"Because of you, my friends, my comrades died. They were good people who couldn't even kill an ant! But just because you were hungry, you tore off their flesh and ate it right in front of our eyes!"
He gritted his teeth.
He clenched his jaw so hard that his teeth cracked and blood seeped from his gums.
"What did we do so wrong? Why... why did you have to go that far?!"
Stab.
He plunged the sword into Kalot's stomach.
Kalot's eyes widened. As he flailed his armless stumps, Smith repeatedly stabbed him in the abdomen, the force of his own thrusts pushing him back. Blood gushed out in torrents. No matter how much Kalot screamed in agony and cast pitiful glances, Smith could not forget how this monster had treated the people of Luna.
"You bastards! You fucking pieces of shit! We could have all lived together! Fuck, we could have!"
Stab.
Stab. Stab.
The violence grew more savage.
Rage completely overthrew his reason. Smith, his face drenched in blood, did not stop. At some point, Kalot could no longer resist. Though he was not yet dead, and his hazy eyes trembled faintly, his twitching body had completely lost the strength to fight back.
Yet, the anger was not appeased. The people of Arcadia had taken pride in their harmonious world, but their long-standing peace had been shattered in an instant.
"Aaaaaaargh!"
Smith let out a beastly shriek.
His opponent could no longer feel pain.
But if he didn't do this, he felt as though he would suffocate to death.
The people watched.
Some averted their eyes.
Others stared wide-eyed, determined not to miss a single moment.
It was then.
"...Lord Roman Dmitry. Shouldn't we stop now? Kalot is already dead."
Kalot hung limp.
Caden could no longer bear to watch.
* * *
It was devastating.
His heart ached.
Smith had been an ordinary man.
A good young man who had once taken the lead in caring for others as a soldier of Luna, now hacking away at Kalot with the face of a madman. A man was falling into ruin. Watching him cry out in pain, consumed by madness, Caden—as a man of God—could not stand by and watch such a sight.
Roman Dmitry spoke.
"Why? Do you find this sight cruel?"
"...It is not that. I simply cannot bear to watch Smith fall into ruin because of his rage any longer."
"Ruin? You are gravely mistaken."
Roman turned his gaze.
He pointed to one of the wide-eyed onlookers.
"Tell me. What did the Orcs do to you?"
It was a woman.
Appearing to be in her mid-forties, she wept tears of blood as she poured out her agony.
"My husband and son were eaten by the Orcs. I could only watch from the ground as my husband's limbs were torn apart while he tried to protect our son. Lord Roman Dmitry, I do not find this situation cruel in the slightest. The Orcs—no, those demons—have left us with wounds that can never heal."
Roman looked at another person.
When Roman asked him the same question, a young man's neck veins bulged with fury.
"All of my friends are dead. One was about to get married, and another was a good guy who took care of his elderly mother. But they died horribly, fighting for Luna. I know that as soldiers defending our country, death is unavoidable. But isn't this Arcadia? We genuinely worried about the Orcs' well-being, but the moment they grew hungry, they saw us as food."
Everyone was filled with venomous spite.
Peace was over.
Though they did not hold the hilt of the sword, they wore the exact same expression as Smith.
Once more, Roman looked at Caden.
Caden's trembling eyes showed he was overwhelmed by the reality before him.
"Caden, the Arcadia that pursued peace no longer exists. The people have experienced wounds they can never forget in their lifetimes. For them to move past their history and live on, they must exact a corresponding price from those who inflicted this pain. Only by trampling on the corpses of their enemies and spitting on them will the people of Luna be able to live on."
War is an unethical act.
To survive in this cruel world, one had no choice but to transform into someone suited for it.
"And the war is not yet over. Beyond Luna's Fortress, the exact same atrocities you suffered are being repeated. Yet you say we should stop? Do you believe hacking a single Orc to pieces is enough to appease their rage? Or do you think one does not need to become a monster to face monsters? If Luna truly wishes to reclaim peace, do not show pathetic mercy to the enemy."
The world had changed.
From the very moment war broke out.
Luna's peace would stem not from warm hearts, but from a powerful force capable of defending itself.
"That is the way of Dmitry, which you will follow from this moment on."
* * *
Kalot was dead.
Seeing Smith sobbing with his face buried over the corpse, Caden felt as if his heart were burning to ashes.
...Lord Roman Dmitry is right. Arcadia can never return to the past.
He had succeeded in his revenge.
Smith had inflicted enough pain to leave his own face and body drenched in blood, but he burst into tears with an expression more agonized than those of the onlookers. It was a beastly shriek. It was not the joy of successful revenge, but rather an emotional outburst because he could not accept this cruel reality.
What if they won the war and wiped out the Orcs?
Would Smith be able to reclaim his former self?
It was impossible.
Whether eating, working, or sleeping, he would suddenly put down his fork at the intrusion of painful memories, halt his work, or wake up drenched in cold sweat like a man haunted by nightmares. It was like a brand. For the rest of Smith's days, peaceful times of seeing and thinking only of good things would never be permitted again.
The same went for the Luna Kingdom.
Even if the Orcs were destroyed, they could no longer trust other races.
In the past, Arcadia had built a peaceful world without any special restrictions. But the Arcadia of today would endlessly suspect others and prepare for a potential war. A single precedent had given birth to distrust. They would interpret the same situations differently, and distrust would breed discord, fueling further chaos.
Caden looked up at the sky.
Snow was falling.
There was a time when he thought he would love Arcadia even if the world froze over, but things were different now.
To kill a monster, I must become a monster myself.
It was a bone-chilling truth.
The enemy stripped and devoured human flesh.
If they turned their eyes away, claiming that even the act of avenging their fallen was cruel, they would never win this war.
Ultimately, it was for Luna.
He realized that rather than dumping the entire burden onto Roman Dmitry, they had to get their own hands dirty and become demons themselves to save Luna. Caden shed no tears. Standing at a crossroads completely different from the life he had pledged as a believer, he accepted deep in his heart how he must live for Luna's sake.
...I am sorry.
To whom was this apology directed?
One thing was certain.
Even if Isabelle returned alive, she, who had not shared in Luna's crisis, could never replace Roman Dmitry's presence for any reason.
* * *
One day passed.
They took a rest.
Though it was called a rest, the day slipped away just organizing the interior and assessing the situation.
The next day, a meeting of the leadership was held.
Caden spoke of the facts he had confirmed through Luna's intelligence network.
"At first, Graxar prioritized securing food by attacking the storage facilities, but at some point, he changed his course. It seems he judged that dragging things out would be dangerous. After capturing Luna's Fortress, Graxar left behind Kalot's ten thousand troops and immediately set off to the east. Although the exact situation is not yet clear, judging by the direction they moved, they are highly likely to attack the Elves' territory."
"Is there a reason you think so?"
"First of all, the Elves' territory lies in the direction Graxar moved. The Elves, who have settled around the World Tree, form one of the largest factions alongside the Luna Kingdom and the Orcs. Now that Luna's Fortress has fallen, if they eliminate the Elves as well, there will virtually be no force left in Arcadia to stop the Orcs."
This was a conversation between Caden and McBurney.
If so, they had to move their forces as quickly as possible.
Only by joining forces with the Elves while their strength remained intact could they increase their chances of winning this war.
"The problem is that we cannot move our troops right now."
In just a single day, a drastic change had occurred in Arcadia's climate.
"Currently, the heavy snowfall in Arcadia is worsening. Moving through this much snow is virtually impossible, and even if we somehow manage to travel, this climate is highly advantageous to the Orcs. They handle 'White Wolves.' With the White Wolves' ability to move nimbly no matter how much snow accumulates, we will inevitably be in danger if we encounter them on the snowy plains."
It was a frustrating situation.
Of all times, snow was dumping down as if a hole had been punched in the sky.
Luna's technology had developed ways to fight in the snow, but even that did not account for a blizzard of this magnitude.
It was despairing.
If they had prepared for war from the beginning, they would have immediately allied with other races to resist when the Orcs attacked neighboring tribes. But they had missed the crucial timing while trying to assess the situation. As for the Elves, they were beings who never left the territory of the World Tree. Attacking Luna's Fortress first was a decision through which Graxar had perfectly exploited Arcadia's weak point.
However, Roman Dmitry's thoughts were different.
"War is a battle against time. Now, while the Elves have not yet fallen and Graxar remains unaware of Kalot's death, is the perfect opportunity to turn the tide. We will not remain here just because of heavy snowfall. We will split our forces in two: one half will liberate the prisoners, including those at the storage facilities, and the other half, led by me, will head straight for the Elves' territory."
"...I agree that now is our chance, but moving through a heavy blizzard is no simple matter."
Caden had changed his mindset.
He was prepared to become a demon.
He was willing to drench himself in blood for Luna's peace, but he still could not support a reckless decision.
Roman Dmitry looked at Caden.
"Caden. When you first asked Dmitry for help, you said Luna knew various ways to overcome Arcadia's environment. Throw away all the common sense you have known until now. If your methods cannot even cope with a common variable like a heavy snowfall, then Arcadia has merely been living complacently in a comfortable reality."
Luna.
They had submitted to Dmitry.
To manage Arcadia in the future, it was necessary to completely overhaul Luna's complacent system.
"Thirty minutes from now, assemble every force Luna can mobilize. I will show you the method of survival that Luna should have pursued from the very beginning. If you still think a mere blizzard is a problem after that, I will accept your advice and seek another way."